Sunday, February 25, 2007

There are a lot of REALLY GOOD manifestos over at ChangeThis.com! Back in May 2006 I blogged about Simplicity in Design and included several links/resources on the subject. Turns out ChangeThis.com has a few good manifestos on the subject as well (and gets more every month). Here are the ones I liked most:

The Simplicity Cycle, by Dan Ward -- "In the Simplicity Cycle, goodness is a general term that means slightly different things depending on a variety of contexts." In technology, goodness represents operational functionality or utility; for an academic discipline, it represents increased understanding; and for system design it reflects design maturity. If the context is art, maybe goodness means beauty" ... increased complexity does not inherently equal increased goodness, learn more by reading this manifesto.

Six Design Lessons from the Apple Store, by Jesse James Garret -- The Six Lessons are: Create an Experience, Not an Artifact; Honor Context; Prioritize your Messages; Institute Consistency; Design for Change; Don't Forget the Human Element!

Other manifestos not necessarily related to the above that I found interesting are:

I've been following his erp4it blog for over a year now (and his corresponding erp4it YahooGroup). Those looking for a taste of what the book is like can look there, and also at the paper ERP for IT which I understand was an early precursor for the book that has since been vastly updated and expanded in the latter.

Even though the subject of the book and the blog doesnt explicitly scream "CM", the content in the book and the blog are filled with often fundamental and profound insights about CM from the enterprise view (not just IT/ITIL) and where software CM, infrastructure CM, and network/element CM all fit in to the bigger enterprise picture. Several of his post that are among my favorites made their way into the book in some form or another:

Monday, February 05, 2007

I've been "tagged" amidst the recent spree of fellow bloggers who are being "asked" to disclose five personal tidbits about themselves that most people don't know. I won't disclose who tagged me, and I won't be tagging anyone else, but I will comply with the request just for the heck of it ...

1. I don’t drink beer or wine – I hate the taste!

When it comes to alcoholic beverages, the only ones I like are those sweet mixed drinks where you can barely taste any alcohol (you know, the ones that are for "sissies").

2. I got inebriated once when I was two years old (in China no less)!

Or so I'm told ... I don’t remember any of it, but as it was told to me, my folks were flying the family to China, and the airline lost our luggage. As consolation, the airline put us up in a hotel and threw a party for us (and several others in a similar situation). Apparently someone spiked the fruit-punch and I never knew what hit me. My sister says I was walking late at night on the shoreline of Taepei, swaggering, swaying, and hiccuping every couple minutes. Eventually my father picked me up and carried me with my head resting over his shoulder, still hiccupping with a giddy grin on my face, pointing at everything I saw and giggling my head off like only a toddler can. (Hmmn – could this explain #1? :)

3. I lived in Taiwan during 1966-1967, and in Hawaii during 1969!

My Dad was a political science professor, and was at the time one of the foremost experts in his field on US-China relations. He would travel to China or Taiwan every now and again for extended periods of time (weeks or longer). One time he took all of us with him and we lived there for a year. In 1969 he had an exchange program with another professor from University of Hawaii on Oahu. Our house was at the top of a very big hill (or a very small mountain :). I went to pre-school at Noalani elementary school in the Manoa valley.

4. I used to be a dancer, and had 20+ years of classical training!

My mom was a dance teacher, and got me started when I was 4 (along with my older siblings). When I got older I decided to stick with it and got to be quite good at it. All in all I had about 20+ years of classical ballet training, along with modern/contemporary, jazz, and a bit of tap and African. I was in a local dance company during my college years and for a short while after. I was good too! I kept up with it until my mid-30s when I was eventually diagnosed with degenerative disc disease. Sometimes guys would try and give me a hard time about my dance background (that's right about the time I would "let it slip" that I also held black-belts in two different martial arts :-)